STUDY: Gay Men More Likely To Be In An Open Relationship Than Monogamous

Of the 2,886 men who have sex with men surveyed by the Centre for Social Research in Health at Australia’s University of New South Wales, 32% were in open relationships.

It’s not a wide margin, though, as 31% were in monogamous relationships.

Of the remaining interviewees, 23% were only having casual hookups and 14% were currently not having sex.

The advent of apps like Grindr and Scruff has likely had an impact: 48% of those surveyed said they used hookup apps to find sex partners, up from 35% in 2012. The next most popular ways of meeting were bars (29%) and bathhouses (28%)

The good news is more sex has meant more testing: The number of men who had three or more HIV tests in the past year rose to 22.8%, up from 11.9% in 2012. (We’d like to see that number a lot higher, of course.)

The survey also found that 5.1% of respondents who are HIV-negative men are on PrEP, though the availability of the medication is not as widespread in Australia as it is in the U.S. (Researchers indicated most PrEP users were obtaining the therapy overseas.)